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Holocaust Survivors and Internal Strengths

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This article focuses on what happened to the survivors of one of the most unbelievable horrors of the modern age, the Holocaust. My interest in this topic was motivated by the fact that I am one such survivor. This study presents evidence that survivors endured their ordeal and fared better in their subsequent lives than has been indicated by much of the psychoanalytic and psychological literature previously published. It suggests that the survivors were supported during the horror of their incarceration by inner resources cultivated during earlier childhood experiences in their family environment. Remarkably, many then-young adults were not only able to endure the horror of the Holocaust, but also subsequently to function adequately in a world that was very different from the one they knew when they were young. Furthermore, my study indicates that those who survived the Holocaust had the capacity to consider the world around them as positive and nurturing in spite of the suffering they had experienced. Finally, this analysis also sheds light on some factors enabling survivors to undergo a significant transformation of their identity by having at their disposal a reservoir of inner psychic strength. Techniques of accommodating included the creative use of fantasy, recollecting experiences of warmth and love, and identifying the self with a group. Perhaps a study of such creative adversity will assist victims of other kinds of trauma.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 1, 67-96 (1988)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167888281004


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				T. Shantall The Experience of Meaning in Suffering among Holocaust Survivors Journal of Humanistic Psychology, July 1, 1999; 39(3): 96 - 124. [Abstract] [PDF]